DAVID Dunn says Lions have a "point to prove" to the Dorset and Wiltshire RFU after last season's county cup fiasco.

Lions were forced to pull out of last year's competition at the quarter-final stage after the Twin Counties RFU insisted they play their postponed tie against rivals Swanage and Wareham on the same weekend as a league game against Henley Wanderers.

Club coach Dunn claimed that the ruling put his players' health at serious risk and the Chapel Gate club decided to remove themselves from the competition - costing them a sizeable pay-day and a possible place in the EDF Energy National Trophy.

And Dunn, whose side travel to Chippenham for their 2008 quarter-final tie tomorrow, has placed an increased emphasis on this year's competition as Lions try to end Swans' dominance of the trophy and land themselves a plum tie in next season's national cup.

Dunn told the Echo: "As far as the Dorset and Wilts RFU is concerned, we certainly feel like we've got a point to prove after what happened last year.

"We obviously pulled our second team out of Dorset and Wilts Division One this year and put them in the Canterbury Shield and that decision was justified when we beat Swanage and Wareham, who lead that league, in the second team county cup.

"We are still supporting the Dorset and Wilts competitions, though, and I think we're in a pretty good position to be challenging for the main cup."

Lions have endured a torrid time in trophy competitions over the past two years, with Dunn's side being thrown out of this season's EDF Energy Intermediate Cup for fielding ineligible fly-half Scott Chislett in their 63-5 second round mauling of Newton Abbot.

That affair also cost Lions a two-point deduction in South West One, as the Chapel Gate outfit battle to stay in the South West top-flight.

But Dunn is keen to redress the balance by lifting this year's Twin Counties trophy - a quest that starts with tomorrow's clash in Wiltshire.

"Chippenham won't be easy," said Dunn, "but I am confident we can match their strength, particularly out wide and I feel we have a better pack of forwards than they do."

Iain Crombie returns to the squad after impressing for the twos last weekend in the Canterbury Shield, while second row Jayson Kenny is unvailable.

Lions: (from) Bruce, Burns, Cawley, Chislett, Crombie, Davies, Dunkerley, Flynn, Frost, Gray, Hardcastle, Hughes, Kiely, Manning, Payne, Ramsey, Seward, Siaki, Ulu.